Tech Tips for Catholics

Every three months, our local Knights of Columbus council would sponsor a speaker for our Defending Our Faith night. This one particular night I was pretty excited, because one of my all-time favorite Catholic speakers was coming to our Parish. I arrived early, only to find a table of youth group kids eating pizza. Now even though I was in my mid-twenties, I had the appearance of a youth group kid and was invited to join the pizza-eating festivities. Don’t mind if I do : )

A man wearing a suit and a really cool mustache came and sat down at our table—as if I have the right to say that I was a part of this fine group of young people.  This man started to tell a story of Christ’s crucifixion in a way that I had never really heard described.  He then engaged us in an intriguing conversation that reminded me of  something C.S. Lewis might have said.  This man introduced himself as Dr. Ray and he proceeded to eat delicious pizza with us.

He looked different than what I had imagined his voice to be on the radio.  Dr. Ray Guarendi is one of the hosts of “The Doctor is In”, which I was an avid listener to on Living Bread Radio.  On the show, he takes calls relating to parenting, family relationships, homeschooling, adoption, and sometimes questions about our faith.

Over the year’s, Dr. Ray has appeared on national radio and television, including Oprah, Joan Rivers, Scott Ross Prime Time, 700 Club, Gordon Elliot, and CBS This Morning. He has also been a guest on regional radio and television shows in over 40 states and Canada.  Dr. Ray has authored several books, including “Discipline That Lasts a Lifetime”, “You’re a Better Parent Than You Think!”, “Back to the Family”, “Good Discipline, Great Teens”, and his newest book, “Adoption: Choosing It, Living It, Loving It”.

Dr. Ray Guarendi has a doctorate degree in clinical psychology and is the father of 10 adopted children.  I would say this makes him qualified!

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If you’re like me you probably have a hard time managing the barrage of information hurled at you via Twitter, Facebook, and every other web2.0 social media platform. And even though it’s estimated that we only use a small portion of our brain capacity, let’s face reality: there is just not enough brain cells to remember everything we want. So while there are lots of tools to help us keep a reference of things (Evernote, NoteScraps, spiral notebooks, stickies, etc.), I find that many people have a hard time keeping in their mind the things that really matter to them. As a Catholic, it’s important to me to leave at least a little bit of room in my brain for things related to my faith. That’s why I use Evernote as an external memory, which allows me to free up my memory for other things.

Still, I need some way to get all of the Catholic goodness into my brain. Let’s say I want to memorize scripture, or quotes from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Or say I want to remember all the incredible things that Padre Pio said. The best way to remember something is by repetition (though language experts might disagree with that) and for repetition and memorization, the best tool possible is the old flash card. But since this is a tech site, let’s talk about a tech version of the flash card that can help all Catholic tech heads: FlashcardExchange.

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Skype launches its iPhone application today!  The app itself is free and lets you make calls and chat with other Skypers over WiFi networks.  You’ll notice that the current reviews left by users talk about how the app crashes constantly.  What I think is funny is their disclaimer, “Skype is not responsible for errors or crashes which result from changes to the underlying iPhone OS.”  You can download the Skype iPhone App here.

Here are some screenshots for what it’s worth:

If you’ve installed this app, we’d love to hear your comments.

Not to be confused with “iMissle”, the portable thermonuclear warhead launcher for the iPhone, iMissal, from Cantcha Inc. (www.cantcha.com) is the iPhone’s first digital Sunday Missal.

Cheese and crackers! What’s a Missal?!? That’s what I often heard as a youth minister working with Catholic teens. A Missal is, according to Wikipedia, a liturgical book containing all instructions and texts necessary for the celebration of Mass throughout the year. Plain and simple, it lets you follow the Mass from beginning to end including the Mass readings and all the text of the prayers said in the Order of the Mass. It’s a tradition that goes way back to at least 1570. So how does iMissal work as a Missal in the digital age? Read on to find out.

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According to the BlueInstinct website, “iConfess was created in order to make it easier for [Catholic Christians] to have a good Confession.”

iConfess Features Include:

• About Confession
• Examination of Conscience
• Prayers for Confession
• Click here to view more

One of the neat features, is the ability to tag specific content so that you can easily come back to it when needed.  Plus it has a search function so that you can search for key words or phrases.

You can purchase the iConfess app on iTunes.

Below are some related links to this topic:

• Advent App for the iPod Touch & Apple iPhone
• Mobile Catholic Prayerbook
• Scripture, Reflections & Prayer

Mobile Prayerbook is an app created by Antonia.  It features various Catholic prayers and is compatible with most mobile phones.  Not only that, but the prayers are available in English, Español (Spanish), Latin, and Bahasa Indonesia (Coming Soon: Francais, Italiano and Deutsch).

What prayers are available inside?

• The basics: Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, ect.
• Devotions to Our Lady: Memorare, Angelus, Hail Holy Queen, The Rosary, The Litany
• Daily Prayers: Morning Offering, Spiritual Communion, Apostles’ Creed, Prayers before & after meal, Thanksgiving
• Special Prayers: Act of Contrition, Adoro te Devote, Prayers for the pope, Te Deum, Prayer to St Michael the Archangel

I personally would like to thank Antonia for creating such an application.  I am looking forward to using it.

Below are some related links to this topic:

• Advent App for the iPod Touch & Apple iPhone
• iConfess iPhone App – Assisting Catholics in the Sacrament of Reconciliation
• Scripture, Reflections & Prayer

Every Friday I post the top 5 favorite blogposts that I’ve come across throughout the week.  You have all weekend now to check them out : )

1. More on the iPod Touch’s Parental Controls
2. A Big Week for Geeks
3. The Fathers – by Pope Benedict XVI
4. Google Video Alternatives
5. Types of Birds on Twitter and How to Be an Eagle

   *Bonus Tweet

If you have a blogpost that you would like to share with me feel free to contact Catholic Tech Tips and I will get it.

Have a great weekend!

Joshua

Catholic Reflections is a daily scripture passage, followed by a saintly reflection and a prayer in the form of a Mobile Widget.  This is a great way to be inspired while waiting at the bus-stop, sitting around on your lunch break, or anywhere else you may find yourself with some free time.

. . .

Please Note: This service is free, but charges from your carrier for usage may apply.

Below are some related links to the iPhone & BlackBerry:

• Catholicize your Apple iPhone or iPod Touch!
• Advent App for the iPod Touch & Apple iPhone
• Other Apps for the BlackBerry® (and iPhone)

Every Friday I post the top 5 favorite blogposts that I’ve come across throughout the week.  You have all weekend now to check them out : )

1. How to replace Wordpress Comments with Google Friend Connect Wall
2. If Programming Languages were Religions
3. SimCity released for the iPhone & iPod Touch!
4. Tweet of the Week ; )
5. One Month Ago, I Hadn’t Even Heard of Twitter

If you have a blogpost that you would like to share with me feel free to contact Catholic Tech Tips and I will get it.

Have a great weekend!

Joshua

Looking back on 2008, here are some of my favorite posts on our blog (either by myself or by one of our fine contributors).

• “How-to Randomize Your Homepage”
• “Can I get some “good” Catholic artwork, Please?”
• “So you want to be a screenwriter, eh?”
• “Clean Up Your Desktop, for Pete’s Sake!”
• “December 5 – Annual Day of the Ninja”
• “Subscribe to Podcasts that are not on iTunes Store”
• “Email and the art of not looking stupid!”
• “The Year of Saint Paul!”
• “Question: Can I use my iPod on multiple computers?”
• “10 Ways to Avoid Being a Dud At Church”
• “Jack Chick has opened up a can of Flash on us!”
• “Guilt-Free Software”
• “MySpace & Mozilla Firefox”
• “What is your Birthverse?”
• “Get ‘Catholic Answers’”

Here are just some of the catigories you will find on our blog:

• Computer Tips & How-To’s
• Gadgets
• Web 2.0
• Faith 2.0
• Artwork
• Q&A

If you have a computer question or question about our faith, let us help!  Contact Catholic Tech Tips.